Apologies for late arrival were received from Pauline Dee.

RESOLVED:

That Councillor S. Davenport be elected Chairman for the ensuing municipal year.

RESOLVED:

That Councillor Mrs. P. Dee be appointed Vice-Chairman for the ensuing municipal year.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 10 April 2014 as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 10^th April 2014 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any questions, statements and petitions of which members of the public have given notice.  Deadline for notification is 4.00 pm on Wednesday 23 July 2014

There were no public questions. 

To receive any questions, statements and petitions of which Members of the Council have given notice. Deadline for notification is 4.00 pm on Wednesday 23 July 2014

There were no questions from Members.

Claire Cox, Programme Manager, will provide an overview of the Economic Redesign work to date and answer questions, to help inform the Committee’s Future Work Programme.

The Economic Growth Re-design Programme Manager gave a presentation on the work being undertaken to redesign Shropshire Council’s Economic Growth Services. This aimed to improve the way that the Council worked with businesses and enabled business growth in the County.

She described the scope of the re-design, and explained that their purpose was to create resilient wealth in sustainable communities.  She described the Council’s role in the County’s economic growth as being that of an enabler and maintaining awareness of the challenges, fluctuations and opportunities of the business climate. 

She explained that the initial design work from March 2014 had identified the areas within the scope of the redesign, the reasons for change, what success would look like and how it could be achieved. 

As part of the initial work for the re-design process a study of the Gross Value Added (GVA) had been completed and this was found to be less than the National average.  It had also been found that the Council had been output orientated and not impact driven. She continued that £80m had been invested by the Council in the economy over the previous seven years, much of which had been used as pump priming.   Since 2001 the Council had secured £86m of external funding, which included funding for large projects such as the Flax Mill in Shrewsbury. 

The key messages from the first Decision Accelerator (DA) in mid-June were:

·      a lot of good work was being done in individual sections of the Council but the individual areas did not always work together as a co-ordinated whole; 

·      too much was being done in a complex environment;

·      projects tended to be output driven instead of impact driven;

·      that equal focus was given to all businesses regardless of potential outcome;

·      businesses viewed the Council as the honest broker; and

·      the Council needed to refocus, with clear priorities.

The Economic Growth Re-design Programme Manager continued that the Council’s future role was that of the ‘informed client’; with the necessary information to effectively commission work from partner organisations and understanding that the commissioned services were being well delivered.

The re-design process had also looked at the funds coming into Shropshire from external sources and whether they remained in the County’s economy.  It had been recognised that work needed to be done to retain these funds within the County’s economy.   

The Decision Accelerator (DA) in June had established four priority work areas and project managers had been assigned to these:

·      Business Growth – Emma Smith – Economic Research Officer;

·      Strategic Growth – Paula Rogers – Team Leader Funding and Programmes;

·      Physical Growth – Andy Savage – Highways Development Control Manager; and

·      Community Business Growth – Sarah Dodds – VCS Assembly Co-ordinator.

Members noted the pilot project in Pontesbury and Minsterley, where the community was being asked to contribute their ideas about the service provided by the Council. 

A Member asked whether the ambition for Shropshire to have a level of economic self-sufficiency and business’ supporting each other was achievable.  The Economic  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To consider the dashboards for the priorities relevant to the Enterprise and Growth Scrutiny Committee, as reported at Quarter 4. 

These outcome dashboards are draft and this is an opportunity for the Committee to see them before they are used for the first time to report Quarter 1 data.

The Portfolio Holder for Performance introduced the Performance Dashboards for the fourth quarter of 2013/14. He explained that these had been developed by a Rapid Action Group with the intention that they would be used by the Scrutiny Committees to identify areas for further investigation and inform the Work Programme for each Committee.  Members were particularly interested in the statistics relating to tourism. 

In response to a query he confirmed that more detailed information could be provided if required. 

RESOLVED:

that the information be noted.

Tim Rogers, Area Planning & Building Control Manager, will provide an update on the implementation of the recommendations made by the Rapid Action Task and Finish Group on Planning which were endorsed by the Enterprise and Growth Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 31 October 2013.  (Click on link below to access the report of the Task and Finish Group)

http://shropshire.gov.uk/committee-services/Data/Enterprise%20and%20Growth%20Scrutiny%20Committee/20131031/Agenda/6%20Final%20rpt%20of%20Task%20and%20Finish%20Group%20on%20planning.pdf

The Area Planning and Building Control Manager, introduced the report.  He explained that a significant number of staff in the Planning service had been lost through the VR process while at the same time the section’s work load had significantly increased.  This was demonstrated by the increase in fee income, with fees received for the first half of 2014 totalling £2.8m compared to £960,000 for the same period of 2013.  Most applications had been for major schemes but there had been a few speculative applications for smaller schemes due to the issues with the 5 Year Land Supply.

Referring to the report he explained that the aim to increase the delegation rate to over 96% had not yet been achieved.  He continued that he was confident that this would be achieved once the SAMDev had been accepted.  The Portfolio Holder for Strategic Planning, Planning, Housing and Commissioning [central] added that the issues with identifying the 5 Year Land Supply had increased both the Service’s and Committees’ work load.  He continued that this situation was unlikely to change until the SAMdev had been fully approved in 2015. 

Referring to bullet point 2 on the same page, the Area Planning and Building Control Manager continued that feedback would be welcome on whether Members felt they were receiving sufficient support to understand planning issues. He added that there had been a definite improvement with Town and Parish Councils that were now more likely to send representatives to talk on their behalf.

It was noted that three Planning Committees continued to operate and costs had been reduced through all of them now holding their meetings at Shirehall.  However, it was noted this had caused some complications with site visits particularly in the south of the County and the issues were being addressed.   It was agreed that it was not expedient to move to one committee for the whole county until due weight could be given to local plans and policies through the adoption of an appropriate scheme. 

Members discussed the issue of enforcement and the monitoring of conditions.  It was suggested that a debate should be held on which developments would be subject to enforcement.  It was agreed that enforcement should be applied consistently across the whole county.  It was suggested that the costs and policies of enforcement should be examined.

It was noted that the three planning committees were not always operating consistently and it was suggested that more training should be undertaken with the Committee Chairs and Vice Chairs to ensure that decisions were taken in the same way across the county.

RESOLVED:

that a further update on progress on the progress of the recommendations would be presented to the Enterprise and Growth Scrutiny Committee in six months’ time.

To consider the proposals for a future work programme.

The Chairman stated the Committee’s Work Programme was a dynamic document and would be worked on by the Work Programme sub-group.

RESOLVED: 

that that the next meeting of the Enterprise and Growth Scrutiny Committee receive an update on Tourism in the County and Tourism Officers be invited to attend and answer Members’ questions.

Thursday 4 September 2014 at 10.00 am

Thursday 9 October 2014 at 10.00 am

Thursday 4 December 2014 at 10.00 am

Thursday 29 January 2015 at 10.00 am

Thursday 2 April 2015 at 10.00 am

Resolved:

that the next meeting of the Enterprise and Growth Scrutiny Committee would be held at 10:00am on Thursday 4^th September 2014.